FORT COLLINS — The mother of the 6-year-old boy purported to be in a runaway balloon repeatedly told authorities it was all a hoax, contradicting what her husband told media before he reported to jail.

The video interviews obtained by the Fort Collins Coloradoan show Mayumi Heene telling Larimer County sheriff’s officials the Oct. 15 event was a hoax that she and her husband orchestrated.

Mayumi Heene pleaded guilty to filing a false report and her husband, Richard Heene, pleaded guilty to attempting to influence a public servant. He began serving a 30-day jail sentence Jan. 11.

Last month, Denver’s Department of Safety fired a deputy sheriff for using racial slurs and harassing inmates and a police sergeant for drinking while in uniform and abandoning a post to have sex with a woman.

A wedding and special events’ planning business has agreed to pay a $200,000 settlement to five employees living in the country illegally after allegedly failing to pay them minimum wages and overtime and discriminating against them because of their race.